The semiconductor industry has a need to access many electronic devices on a semiconductor wafer. As the semiconductor industry grows and devices become more complex, many electrical devices, most commonly semiconductor devices, must be electrically tested, for example, for leakage currents and extremely low operating currents. These currents are often below 100 fA. In addition, the currents and device characteristics are often required to be evaluated over a wide temperature range to understand how temperature affects a device. To effectively measure at currents below 100 fA, a measurement signal must be isolated from external electrical interference, leakage currents through the dielectric material, parasitic capacitance, triboelectric noise, piezoelectric noise, and dielectric absorption, etc.
At present, semiconductor test equipment has been designed to try to prevent the above described interference or noise, etc. at a test equipment side, by driving a guard layer of a tri-axial cable at the same potential as a center signal conductor of the tri-axial cable. The outer shield of the tri-axial cable is grounded to the test equipment. It is desired that external electrical interference, leakage currents through the dielectric material, parasitic capacitance, triboelectric noise, piezoelectric noise, and dielectric absorption are significantly reduced or eliminated.
Also, because of the materials characteristics of dielectrics, it is often difficult to test characteristics of semiconductor devices in a wide operating temperature range.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved semiconductor test equipment for electrically probing semiconductor devices at low currents and over a wide temperature range.